Elephants ears - i just love them

I have a large" Elephants ears" in a huge pot. The leaves are huge - i just love them. And what with all the rain weve had they are looking good enough to eat. lol Only kidding.

Im not sure of their proper name - buts its easier to call them elephants ears.

The only thing is in the centre of the plant are tiny black fly. I read washing them with soapy water will get rid of these creatures. Has anyone any tips for me? I dont want to use spray of kill them in washing up liquid either. I wondered how soapy the mix should be?

If I were you I'd go and buy an organic insecticide from your garden centre. If the insects are in the centre of your plant, you will have the liquid sitting there, and you do run the risk of burning the plant with a home-made mixture.

The name 'elephants ears' also applies to the tropical plant, usually grown as a house plant, Alocasia - and I have a suspicion that this, rather than bergenia, is what Alina W is talking about - mostly 'cos I can't see that being grown indoors as a house plant.

This is one of the reasons that knowing the family neme of a plant can be a good idea, as I discovered in the past - we know what we mean by bluebells (scilla), but in parts of Scotland they mean harebells (campanula) and in Texas their national plant is a called a bluebell, which looks a bit like a bright blue lupin and I have no idea what that is called otherwise!